Penguin Little Black Classics

"She's an adventuress. Yes, an adventuress, but an end-of-the-century one. She doesn't travel for profit, but for pleasure." Offering an entertaining introduction to the fin-de-siecle, this selection from the notorious magazine The Yellow Book includes stories and poems by famous writers such as

'Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me...' After the death of his wife Emma, a grief-stricken Hardy wrote some of the best verse of his career. Moving and evocative, it ranks among the greatest elegiac poetry in the language. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's

'You shall have thousands of gold pieces; - thousands of thousands - millions - mountains of gold: where will you keep them?' Two of Ruskin's most powerful essays: 'Traffic' and 'The Roots of Honour' Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics

'Those husbands that I had, Three of them were good and two were bad. The three that I call "good" were rich and old...' One of the most bawdy, entertaining and popular stories from The Canterbury Tales. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black

'...dreaming of bears, or fire, or water...' The greatest of Elizabethan pamphleteers, Nashe had a magical ability with words, never more so than in The Terrors of the Night, where he mulls over ghosts, demons, nightmares and the supernatural. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for

'Drunk or sober, king or soldier, none will be excluded' Sensual, profound, delighted, wise, Hafez's poems have enchanted their readers for more than 600 years. One of the greatest figures of world literature, he remains today the most popular poet in modern Iran. Introducing Little Black

An ass, clothed in the skin of a lion...' Aesop's animal fables are some of the earliest stories ever told, thought to have been composed by a slave in Greek antiquity and giving glimpses of a world that is harsh, pitiless and yet also eerily familiar. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books

'Hoodwink'd in faery fancy...' This volume contains a selection of Keats's greatest verse - including his gothic story in verse, 'The Eve of St Agnes', and the mysterious 'Lamia' - exploring themes of love, enchantment, myth and magic. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's

'Drawn on by his eagerness for the open sky, he left his guide and soared upwards...' Ovid tells the tales of Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, the Calydonian Boar-Hunt, and many other famous myths. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black

'With one's face in the wind you were almost burned with a shower of Firedrops' A selection from Pepys' startlingly vivid and candid diary, including his famous account of the Great Fire Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the

'To the utterly at-one with Siva there's no dawn.' Meditative, deeply personal poems to the god Siva, from four major Hindu saints. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books

'The valley was full of snakes and serpents as big as palm trees, so huge that they could have swallowed any elephant that met them.' A selection of fantastic and perilous adventures at sea from the Thousand and One Nights. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th

'I can promise to be candid, not, however, to be impartial.' A selection of the most insightful maxims and reflections from one of Germany's greatest ever thinkers. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and

'...a good bit of spice to give the critlings a flavour, and plenty of treacle to make the mince-meat look rich' Radical Victorian reformer Henry Mayhew walked the streets of London interviewing ordinary flower girls, market traders, piemen and costermongers to create the first ever work of mass

Four hilarious and provocative stories from Boccaccio's Decameron, featuring cuckolded husbands, cross-dressing wives and very bad priests. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics,

'The Argonauts were terrified at the sight. But Jason planting his feet apart stood to receive them, as a reef in the sea confronts the tossing billows in a gale.' The tragic, epic love affair that allowed Jason to get the Golden Fleece. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's

'The devil gave the woman a nudge: "Look at that belt full of money peeping out from under the butcher's shirt!"' Written for a local German journal and published in 1811, these fabulous, funny, jewel-like miniature tales describe con men, tricksters, disasters, murders, rascals and lovers, and

'And then he, completely astonished at her words, left off his lewdness, saying to her as many a man had done before, "Either you are a truly good woman or else a truly wicked woman." ' Brave, outspoken and guaranteed to annoy people wherever she went - including exasperated fellow pilgrims in

'She kissed and kissed her with a hungry mouth' A selection of Rossetti's most famous poems, from the hallucinatory 'Goblin Market' to 'In the bleak mid-winter' Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity

'Yes, we did many things, then - all Beautiful ...' Lyrical, powerful poems about love, sexuality, sun-soaked Greece and the gods. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books

'Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.' The true horror of the trenches is brought to life in this selection of poetry from the front line. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics

'... a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food...' Swift's devastating short satire on how to solve a famine Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the